Between portraying the Red Skull in "Captain America: The First Avenger" and voicing Megatron in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," Hugo Weaving has been quite busy.

The "Matrix" star recently paid a visit to the set of "The Hobbit," and it wasn't just to say hello.

Sir Ian McKellen told fans on his website that Weaving is the latest "Lord of the Rings" alum to reprise a role in the prequel.

Weaving will be "back for a stretch as Lord Elrond," said McKellen, who himself will be back as Gandalf.

You can also count McKellen as a fan of "Flight of the Conchords," having spent some time on the set with Bret McKenzie, who played Figwit in "Return of the King."

"Now he is briefly back in Rivendell as a senior official at Elrond's Court and he has a name 'Lindir,' which means 'singer,'" McKellen said. "Tolkien has plenty of songs in The Hobbit but the script doesn't indicate that Lindir will be singing any of them. If, as he promises, Bret makes a 'Conchord' feature film ere long, I shall angle for a non-speaking part as BIGWIT."

McKellen had more to share with his fans: "And there's another wizard in town, preparing to make his appearance as Radagast the Brown, the eccentric friend of Gandalf's, played by Sylvester McCoy. This week he has been trying out his make-up and costume."

Sean Astin's character (Samwise Gamgee) wasn't a dwarf; he was a hobbit. Now, I will say it was quite a "stretch" (no pun intended) to have John Rhys Davies play the part of the dwarf Gimli; especially considering JRD is 6 feet 1 inch tall.

Ted, "The Hobbit" is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings, and traces Bilbo Baggins' (Frodo's uncle) adventures when he was young, and where he eventually obtains the One Ring. Given this timeline, Frodo and Samwise (Sean Astin's character) were probably not yet born. At least I don't remember them being mentioned in the book.

So Sean Astin will most likely not be in the movie, unless they find some "narrator" role for him, to tie it neatly to the LOTR movies.